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Carmona pitches Indians past Royals

Jul 15, 2007 - 11:23 PM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Fausto Carmona once again shined brightly during the day.

Carmona remained perfect in day games as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Kansas City Royals, 5-3, on Sunday.

Travis Hafner had three hits - including a two-run homer - as the Indians improved to a major league best 32-13 at home.

Carmona (11-4) improved to 8-0 in day games this season with an ERA of 1.98 in nine starts. At night, Carmona's ERA soars to 6.00 and he is only 3-4.

"I feel comfortable in the day games, but it doesn't feel any different than pitching in a night game," said Carmona through a translator. "It just happens that the results are better."

"I don't know why it is," catcher Victor Martinez said. "You are asking the wrong guy."

Indians manager Eric Wedge also couldn't figure out why Carmona is better in the day.

"I think there are certain stats that happen over the course of the year that won't be patterns over a course of a career," Wedge said. "You can't explain everything in this game. I'm just pleased with the way he has thrown the ball all year and helped us win ballgames.

The Tribe righthander allowed two runs as he scattered eight hits in seven innings while striking out four. The 23-year-old kept the Royals off the scoreboard until the fifth, when Kansas City struck for two runs. Carmona, who allowed a runner in the first four innings, finished strong as he held the Royals hitless in his last two frames.

"I was just trying to change speeds more," Carmona said. "I went after the hitters more in the last two innings."

Jason Smith hit a solo shot off of Rafael Betancourt to make the score 5-3, but closer Joe Borowski, who blew a save in Friday's night game, worked a scoreless ninth to pick up his 26th save in 29 opportunities.

Hafner's two-run homer in the first, gave the Indians an early 2-0 lead. Martinez walked with two outs and Hafner blasted a 1-1 pitch from Royals starter Jorge De La Rosa into the second deck in right field for his 15th home run.

"Getting the home run was nice to give us an early lead at the start," Hafner said.

It was the first home run for Hafner since signing a four-year, $57 million contract extension on Thursday.

"I am feeling pretty comfortable," Hafner said. "I am feeling like I am taking good swings for the most part."

Garko hit a solo homer in the fourth to extend the Indians lead to 3-0. Garko, who homered Saturday, hit De La Rosa's 1-0 pitch over the left field wall.

Garko's home run snapped a streak of 10 consecutive Indians batters failing to put the ball in play. After Hafner's home run De La Rosa (7-9) walked four batters while striking out six.

"That's the way works sometimes," Wedge said. "There is no pattern to anything in this game, that's what makes it such a great game."

De La Rosa's afternoon ended two batters later. After walking Franklin Gutierrez, Royals manager Buddy Bell and a trainer came out to check on De La Rosa. After a brief discussion, Bell decided to take De La Rosa out. De La Rosa was diagnosed with a bruised left thumb and is considered day-to-day.

"(De La Rosa) has had it for a few days," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "It's something that happened over the break. He said it didn't bother him too much."

De La Rosa, who threw 83 pitches, allowed three runs on two hits while striking out six and walking six in 3 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season.

"I pitched bad," De La Rosa said. "I had a lot of walks."

Cleveland scored two runs in the sixth to extend their lead to 5-2. Garko and Jason Michaels hit one-out singles before Franklin Gutierrez brought home Garko with a double into the gap in right-center off of David Riske. Josh Barfield followed with sacrifice fly.

"To get those two runs to take it from 3-2 to 5-2 was the difference in the game," Wedge said.

Billy Butler and Ross Gload each had an RBI for the Royals, who dropped to 1-2 on their nine-game road trip.